Westchester Symphonic Winds Opens 37th Season with “Landscapes”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

October 4, 2024

 

MEDIA CONTACT: 

Curt Ebersole – Conductor/Music Director, Westchester Symphonic Winds

Phone: (914) 281-1976 · E-Mail: [email protected]

Website: www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org

 

Westchester Symphonic Winds Opens 37th Season with “Landscapes”

 

TARRYTOWN, NY – Westchester Symphonic Winds (WSW) presents “Landscapes,” the opening performance of their 37th season on Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 3:00 pm at the Tarrytown Music Hall. The concert will transport the audience across a musical landscape rooted in diverse themes ranging from American culture and history to classic Shakespearean literature.

Guest artists for the Landscapes concert include musical neighbors spanning the distance from the Hudson Valley to the Pacific Coast. Taking the stage as the featured soloist is SFC Nicole Caluori, now in her fifteenth year as Principal French Horn of the West Point Band. Leading the ensemble as the first guest conductors for the 37th season are Dr. Gerard Morris and Andrew Dolgon. Dr. Morris joins the group from the University of Puget Sound School of Music, where he is serving in his fifteenth year as Director of Bands and department chair for winds and percussion. Apprentice conductor Andrew Dolgon, a member of the WSW trombone section, is the elementary band director for the Pelham Union-Free School District in southern Westchester and maintains an active private studio in Westchester.

Noting the significance of Landscapes as the 37th season opening concert, Maestro Ebersole shared, “Music transcends time and distance, bringing communities together as we collectively explore the richness and diversity of our histories and traditions. Landscapes is the first of our series of programming this season that will take listeners on exciting musical journeys.”

Program includes:

arr. TAYLOR – Simple Gifts

SMITH/arr. Sousa & Damrosch – The Star-Spangled Banner

GIROUX – Overture in Five Flat

NAIGUS – Harvest Light, SFC Nicole Caluori, horn soloist

HESKETH – Danceries

COPLEY – Ayo, Andrew Dolgon, Apprentice Conductor

BREMER – Early Light, Dr. Gerard Morris, Guest Conductor

DUNTON – Echota

COLLINS – O rose of May

To Purchase Tickets: Tickets for this performance are priced at $30 for adults, $20 for students and seniors, and free of charge for children under 10. In addition, US veterans and US military personnel are admitted free in honor of Veterans Day. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Tarrytown Music Hall box office, by calling 877-840-0457, or online at 

https://tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=2947.

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About the Guest Artists:

Sergeant First Class Nicole Caluori has been a featured soloist with the West Point Band and was a concerto competition winner at Eastern Music Festival. As a chamber music enthusiast, SFC Caluori is the horn player in the Regimental Brass Quintet, Collective Brass, and has performed at the Shalin Liu Performance Center for the Rockport Chamber Music Festival with the West Point Woodwind Quintet. SFC Caluori studied horn performance at Florida State University and Southern Methodist University with William Capps and Gregory Hustis and received her Bachelor’s degree in 2007. In her free time, SFC Caluori enjoys an active lifestyle, running, and spending time with her husband, Nick (who serves as third horn in the West Point Band), their three children, and dog, Coda. SFC Caluori is from Coral Springs, FL and has been Principal Horn of the West Point Band since 2009. Prior to joining the band, SFC Caluori spent summers at Tanglewood Music Center, National Repertory Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival, and Eastern Music Festival. She has also performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony, and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.

Andrew Dolgon is a music educator and brass player from East Meadow, New York, and has been a member of the Westchester Symphonic Winds since November 2022. Currently, he serves as the elementary band director for the Pelham Union-Free School District in southern Westchester, conducting the 4th and 5th grade bands across the district’s elementary schools. He also has a thriving private studio in Westchester. As a brass player, Andrew has performed with The Brooklyn Wind Symphony and The Westchester Band and has performed at numerous venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Champaign, IL), and The Brucknerhaus (Linz, Austria). Andrew holds a Masters in Music Performance and Literature with an emphasis in Tuba Performance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from The Pennsylvania State University.  While at the University of Illinois, Andrew served as a teaching assistant with the Marching Illini, where he conducted at football games, basketball games, and the Marching Illini In-Concert performance on the stage of the Foellinger Great Hall. Andrew resides in Westchester with his wife, Nicole and their two cats, Pumpkin and Kiwi.

Gerard Morris ​​joined the University of Puget Sound School of Music faculty in fall 2009, and currently serves as director of bands and department chair for winds and percussion. In 2016, he was honored as the recipient of the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award, and in 2022 was promoted to the rank of full professor. Morris has appeared as conductor, guest clinician, and lecturer at numerous events throughout the United States and abroad, including CBDNA National and Division Conferences, WMEA State Conference, BCMEA Conference, CMEA Bay Section Conference, University of Georgia JanFest, South Dakota Bandmasters Association Conference, and guest artist in residence at American Community School Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Morris’s conducting and teaching are informed by years of professional performing experience as principal euphonium with Boulder Brass and United States Marine Corps Band, Hawai’i. With these organizations he toured the United States, Australia, and Costa Rica as both an ensemble member and soloist. Morris earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Western Michigan University, a Master of Music Education degree from University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Doctor of Music degree in conducting from Northwestern University. 

 

About the Conductor:

Curt Ebersole has served as the Conductor/Music Director (John P. Paynter Memorial Chair) of the Westchester Symphonic Winds since 2008, fostering its exponential growth over the past seventeen years, culminating in The American Prize for 2018-2019. He retired from Northern Valley Regional High School (Old Tappan, New Jersey) in 2013 after serving as Director of Instrumental Music for 31 years, and now teaches at The Masters School, in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree and a Master of Music in Conducting degree from Northwestern University, where he studied conducting with John P. Paynter and clarinet with Larry Combs, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Clarinet Performance from SUNY-Purchase, studying with Ben Armato. He has served as guest conductor/clinician for many county, regional, and all-state student ensembles, and adult community ensembles across the nation, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Symphony Space, and in Las Vegas, South Korea and Australia. His achievements include multiple teaching awards, ensemble performances as a clarinetist and basset hornist, and speaking/clinic engagements with the Midwest Clinic, TEDxOneonta, and numerous state music education conventions and conducting symposia. 

About the Westchester Symphonic Winds:

The Westchester Symphonic Winds (WSW) is a 60-piece adult community-based wind and percussion ensemble, originally known as the Hudson Valley Wind Symphony. This year we celebrate our 37th season as the area’s premiere community band. We exist to promote music in our area, instill pride in our nation and heritage, provide opportunities for personal expression and growth within our membership, and nurture the love of music by offering an exceptional musical experience for people of all ages. WSW performed at the Association of Concert Bands National Conventions in 2012 and 2019, the New York State Band Directors Association in 2017, and the Caramoor Festival annually since 2014. WSW made its Lincoln Center debut in 2010, and its Carnegie Hall debut in 2023. WSW was the winner of The American Prize for 2018-2019. The organization is an Ensemble-in-Residence at the historic Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, and rehearses there on Monday evenings, September through June.

Membership in the Westchester Symphonic Winds is available to all qualified musicians. Membership information can be obtained by contacting us via email at [email protected] or by U.S. mail (Westchester Symphonic Winds, Box 485, 333 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605). You can also visit us online at: www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org and through any of our social media platforms.

Westchester Symphonic Winds, Inc. is a Section 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit organization. Corporate and personal contributions, financial assistance, and volunteers are essential and always welcomed! 

For additional concert and ticket information, advertising, donations, and updates, visit us at: www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org.